Reader Question: What does it mean for an IT organization to be "customer-centric"?

Third Sky Expert Answer:

Keplyn Robinson, Senior Education Consultant, Third Sky

A successful Service Provider doesn’t just deliver something and call it a “service,” they operate within a customer-centric service culture, truly understanding the meaning of “service” and demonstrating that in their behaviors.

A Service Provider must, of course, harvest a return from delivering services, but if their focus is only on their own gain they are not likely to be successful.

Being customer-centric means having a strategic focus on the customer’s gains, the customer’s desired outcomes. As Service Providers, we need to design, deliver and maintain offerings that will improve performance for the customer in terms of: revenue, profitability, competitiveness, innovation, time to market, and retention of their own customers.

 Over the years a ‘service” has been defined many ways, but in ITIL® v3 Best Practice Guidance, a Service is defined as:

 "A means of delivering value to customers by facilitating the outcomes that customers want to achieve without the ownership of specific costs and risks”

 As Service Providers, we need to examine the message inherent in this definition and make it real in the services we bring to the marketplace. We should understand specifically how this definition translates into success for us and our customers.

Do you have a burning question for our IT Service Management Experts? Are you facing a challenge and need guidance? Send us your question and we'll get back to you with some real-world ITSM advice.